The Elephant in the Room

[Bob Armstrong]

But Ken - don't you think this site has its own innate beauty !!

Bob

[Ken Craft]

Not when posts are arbitrarily deleted, executive members choose not to participate. How often do we, the members, here from executive members on this site?

As for Chris' comments let's just say I support a more transparent Federation.

[Peter McKillop]

I agree with you, Ken. If posts/threads can be deleted at the whim of the CFC with no one having the courage to take responsibility for the deletion, then this is my last trip to this site.

[Christopher Mallon]

I post here all the time Ken. So you hear from the exec virtually every day.
Which is pretty good considering there isn't even anything new every single day.

Peter - I'm not sure who deleted the posts, but I'll be sure to go over proper moderator courtesy with those who have such ability

[Ken Craft]

I wrote "executive members", Chris? Where are your colleagues? Other than you or David, there is very little communication from executive members on the CFC discussion board. I am pleased that you and David participate, I wonder why the others don't.

By the way who would have had the power to delete our exchange, Chris?

[Christopher Mallon]

Well I can't speak for the rest of the executive. But as I said there's hardly something new every day, and I think between David and I (and Bob) we cover most things.

Moderators - Myself, David, Bob, Stijn, Lyle

[Ken Craft]

To my mind it isn't about there being new things every day. To me it is about interacting with the membership and being seen to be accessible.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Chris:

It would be great if the Executive came here and THEY brought some NEW things for members to respond to - new intiatives they are thinking of taking ( what do members think of them? - will they fly? ); controversies on the Governors' Forum on current CFC issues - e.g. should CFC go to an ED Home Office arrangement? ( what is the membership input on this? ); etc..

And I would not let the Governors off the hook here either - they should come as well as the Executive.

This would promote good 2-way dialogue with the membership.

Bob

[Vladimir Drkulec]

The Elephant in the Room

The saying “ No one will talk about the elephant in the room “ describes a situation where something is large and obvious and uncomfortable, but no one wants to take a chance on raising the issue.

Well CFC has an elephant in the room. The looming 2008-9 deficit is projected by the Grassroots’ Campaign to be $ 24,700 ( 1st half - $ 8,717; 2nd half - $ 16,000 ). Now in 2007-8 it was $ 33,251. And in 2006-7 it was $ 48,677. So there has been some progress. And the CFC in 5 months this past year has done much restructuring ( as called for by the Grassroots' Campaign ) - for which they are to be congratulated. But the current year’s deficit will still be sizeable ( elephantine ).

What has been the CFC response to this revelation by the Grassroots’ Campaign ? – deafening SILENCE.

As you mention, things are moving in the right direction and have been for several years. The CFC is taking the steps that are needed to reduce and hopefully eliminate the deficit in future years.

In these times it is the cash flows that matter more than the deficit. If you run out of money, you die. At these levels it is unlikely that the CFC will run out of money any time soon. You would expect that all the restructuring will result in a temporary increase in the deficit along with a number of one-time charges associated with ending certain money losing operations.

Vladimir Drkulec

[Bob Gillanders]

Good insight Vlad, you must have some first hand experience with restructuring an organization!

We were fortunate to have the financial support of the Chess Foundation over the last year. Their loans have allowed us to continue normal operations while restructuring.

The target remains to balance the books for fiscal 2010.